Soul Reckoning_A LitRPG Adventure

by Isaac Winter

  “Don’t let him fool you,” Tris said. “He’s just trying to get under your skin. Come on, let’s go.” She pointed to a door at the other side of the room.

  Just a little riddle. Hope you won’t mind.

  The door glowed with orange light and strange markings appeared on the border. They weren’t from any language I was familiar with.

  Were these the runes?

  All you have to do is utter the proper password, then boom, an audience with the Author himself. Easy peasy.

  Tris huffed and stomped her foot. “You know we can’t read that!”

  Oh? Your little Veilwalker friend isn’t there to help? Guess you’ll have to improvise.

  > New Timed Challenge: Decode the Door

  Crane has rigged the room with traps that will go off the longer you wait. Decipher the code and make it through to the other side.

  Time Left: 00:25:00

  “25 minutes?!” I groaned. “Like anyone could learn a language in that amount of time.”

  “We don’t have to learn the whole language,” Fel reminded us. Just enough to decipher the code.

  Tris balled her fists and a single tear formed at the corner of her eye. “I wish Cael were here.”

  “We all do,” Fel said. “But he wouldn’t have given up here, no matter what.”

  “I’ve still got the Arcana book,” I mentioned, hefting it out of my bag. “Undamaged, mind you.” I eyed Fel. “Perhaps there’s something in here that can help?”

  Fel frowned. “Doubtful. I would have noticed.”

  “And yet you never noticed the code on the inside cover.”

  He bristled at that. “That was different!”

  “Guys!” Tris yelled, pushing us apart. “We don’t have time for this!”

  “Fine,” Fel huffed. “We’ll just have to take it down with force, then.” He lifted the hammer and set his jaw, running toward the lock.

  I winced before he even hit the door. The hammer bounced off as if it were nothing more than a child’s toy, throwing Fel backward onto his rump. He groaned and got up, rubbing his tailbone.

  “Who’s the one that’s too quick to jump into action now?” Tris winked. “This isn’t something you can just beat with brute force. It’s tougher than that. But I bet I can figure out how it works.”

  She pulled her goggles down over her face and narrowed her eyes as a holographic schematic appeared before her.

  Just then, a sound like a waterfall filled my ears and water rushed out from several different holes in the wall. I shrieked, jumping away as I was caught in a particularly nasty stream.

  Four different spigots, all on different corners of the room. All flooding into the small chamber at full blast.

  This was probably a bad time to bring up that I didn’t know how to swim, right?

  “Um, guys?” I said as the water pooled around my ankles. I climbed up on top of a rock nearby, skinning my hands and knees. It would buy me a little time, but not much.

  Tris didn’t seem to notice the water, and if she did, she didn’t seem to care. She was too far into whatever mechanical trance she went into. Fel eyed the rising water level, then Tris, then me.

  “You might wanna hurry!” Fel said in a pinched voice.

  Tris moved her lips in silent prayer, working her hands as if she were adjusting knobs and buttons on some invisible terminal. She was utterly entranced in the act, even when the water rose above her ankles and into her boots. Nothing was worse than wet boots.

  With a whiny metal creak, the handle to the door turned but stayed put. Fel threw himself against it, sloshing through the rapidly rising water level. It didn’t budge.

  You’re gonna have to do better than that.

  “Aurelius, light it up!” I cried, and my dragon swooped toward the door, letting out a column of flame. He was still a small dragon, so it was nothing like the torrents of fire I’d seen in movies, but the metal on the door glowed red as he heated it. The fire sputtered out.

  > Your Familiar is Drained.

  I groaned.

  Tris ripped the goggles off her face. “It’s no good,” she spat. “I’ve never seen anything like it before. The locking mechanism is divorced from the door, somehow. I can turn the handle, and the mechanical body of the lock, even, but it seems like it has to communicate with something else to verify...ugh.” She muttered and wrung her hands. “And now it’s fucking flooding!” Tris yelped as she finally took notice of her surroundings.

  “That’s not all,” Fel said with a wary glance at the wall. With a loud rumble, the ground began to shake, just like when a Tear was about to appear. Only this time, no gaping hole in the air slashed through the sky. No monsters swooped down from above to prey on us and on the real world.

  No, the ground was just disintegrating beneath our feet.

  No big deal.

  I hopped from one foot to the other as I avoided a crumbling tile. Tris grabbed her grappling hook and looked around frantically, hoping to catch on something that would lift her off the perilous floor.

  Unfortunately, the ceiling was unmarked and smooth.

  I scanned the room trying to find some high ground. First the flooding, and now this?

  Another rumble shook the walls as chips of plaster and soot fell from the ceiling.

  But this time, it was targeted to one area of the wall.

  The wall shook again, and a bizarre scratching sound came from within.

  Reminded me of that time we had rats.

  “Guys, I think there’s something in there,” I said, pointing. The noise grew louder, and the floor grew more unstable.

  A stone tumbled out from under my foot and I fell, grabbing onto the ledge of a remaining stone for support. Aurelius squawked and fluttered above me, getting my team’s attention.

  “Laurie!” Tris yelled, bounding over to me. She stuck out a hand, and it took all my strength to reach up and grasp it.

  “Hold on!” She yelled and pulled, hard. Her face screwed up as she tried to lift me, but I felt her weight being pulled forward as well.

  Fel lunged forward and put the handle of his great hammer in front of Tris’s torso, heaving us both backward. Tris coughed and wheezed as he effectively knocked the breath out of her, but I raised up enough to find my footing once more.

  Aurelius nipped at my shoulders, squawking in alarm.

  The wall shuddered and a great crack appeared. In a rain of dust and dirt, a hand shot out.

  A pale, dusky grey hand.

  32

  Cael

  Son of a Glitch.

  I’m far from being an expert at this stuff, but something tells me that when I go through a portal, I’m not supposed to respawn literally INSIDE a wall.

  Yeah. That sucked.

  I heard their voices when I went through. Thank goodness I’d ended up close, at least. Imagine my surprise when I realized I was in the inner sanctum of Crane’s Keep. Perfect.

  Too bad I was stuck in a wall.

  I heard my friends just on the other side, yelling and screaming about something. A sharp metal sound penetrated the air and made my ears ring, even from the other side of the wall. In the blink of an eye, a timer appeared in my HUD.

  > 3 minutes and counting...

  I thrashed at the wall as I heard their screams. Her screams.

  The ground rumbled and shook, clearly unhappy about my sudden arrival. I managed to dig out a weak spot in the wall and threw myself into it.

  It creaked and cracked, but I couldn’t get through. I tried again, using whatever tools I could find at my disposal. I sliced, hammered, kicked. All the while, the building shook like it was going to collapse around me. I wasn’t going down trapped inside a wall. That much was for certain.

  With a final, desperate grasp, my fist broke through the final layer of wall and out into the room. Light spilled into the cavity. Surprised yelps came from the other side.

  I wasted no time grasping around, trying to find another handhold. I had a few
explosives on me, but using them at such close range was basically suicide. I’d have to claw my way out the old fashioned way.

  “Oh my god, it’s Cael!” Tris was the first to come to my aid. Even though I couldn’t see much outside of the wall yet, I could feel her warm, soft hand wrapped around mine. I wouldn’t forget that feeling in a dozen lifetimes.

  She pulled on my arm, trying to yank me out of the crevice. Unfortunately, I didn’t budge and I nearly dislocated my shoulder in the process.

  “Nice to see you too,” I called, my voice muffled. “Stand back.”

  I threw myself into the wall elbow first, putting all of my weight toward the weak spot in the wall. It opened a little further.

  Dust and smoke stung my eyes, and I saw a strange orange light filter in through the cracks. All too familiar...

  > 1 minute, and counting...

  “Help me!” I screamed, kicking and slicing at the remaining beams and plaster. Debris rained down all over me, getting in my lungs, my skin, my hair. I didn’t care.

  With a final heave, I tumbled through the wall and landed on all fours on the floor. My hands and knees scraped on the rough stone, my hair tangled and dirty.

  But I was free.

  “Cael!” Laurie screamed. She dodged holes and cracked tile, dancing through the mess to get to me. Thank god she was all right. “Quick, the door!”

  “Don’t say hi all at once,” I mumbled.

  Picking myself up, I set my gaze on the runes covering the gateway.

  They were intricate and more complex than any I’d dealt with before. And you could hardly call me an expert. Still, I was the resident rune reader.

  Now that we were all together, we’d give Crane a battle he wouldn’t forget.

  Now was the time for answers.

  I scoured the text, looking for patterns.

  Several of the glyphs stood out to me as ones I’d seen originally in Crane’s book, back at the Academy. I’d almost forgotten about them. Squinting, I read the words in succession—

  Here lies the Master of the Veil

  Enter, and the mysteries of the universe will be yours

  A flashing dialog appeared in my HUD:

  > You have found: Traegoria Keep, Inner Sanctum.

  > Enter?

  [Yes/No]

  > 10 seconds and counting...

  “Everyone ready?” I called as my friends gathered around me and the ground disintegrated around us.

  I selected Yes.

  33

  Cael

  The room didn’t look much like how I’d expected. No skulls, magical amulets, or wicked cauldrons bubbled over. No. It was just a normal office,. In fact, it looked a little too familiar.

  He’d fashioned it after his office at Overture. And even though I’d only been to his office once before his disappearance, I knew how much he liked to keep it neat.

  Every paper was dutifully filed, every book in alphabetical order on the shelf. Every surface dusted, every thing in its place.

  How had he descended to such madness?

  Crane sat facing away from us, hunched over a book. When he turned, the look on his face was, and still is, one of the most haunting things I’ve ever seen.

  Tobias Crane had never been handsome by traditional standards, but he certainly wasn’t ugly. I could no longer say that about him. Time, stress, and who knew what else had taken a toll on him.

  Thin, mottled skin hung limply over his face, aging him beyond his years. If I remembered correctly, he’d only been a few years older than me when we worked at the Academy together. But now, it looked like he was double my age or more.

  His eye sockets were sunken low into his face, dark shadows around the edges. He still retained his hair and neatly trimmed goatee, though.

  His eyes widened as he noticed me standing there. “Cael,” he said in a slow, measured drawl. “What an interesting surprise. Thought I banned you.”

  “Didn’t take.” I clipped. “I made it back. You didn’t think you could keep me out, did you?”

  Crane threw up a hand. A column of earth shot up behind me, separating me from my friends.

  “How about we have a little private conversation?” Crane said. “Your friends can wait. There’s quite the festival happening in, oh...” He checked his watch as a wide grin spread across his face. “Any minute now.”

  “You’re tearing this world apart!” I spat, unable to keep it inside any longer. “You’re using too much magic, the Veil can’t take it!”

  Crane brushed me off. “I’m the Author here. I’m basically a god! Who’s to say what I can and can’t do?”

  “Surely you’ve seen the Glitches. The Tears! Crane, they’re ripping this place apart. They’re trying to get back through, back to the Academy.”

  “As well they should,” Crane agreed. “Why should we segregate ourselves, after all?”

  “It...it doesn’t work like that!” I sputtered. Trying to get through to this man was madness. Clearly he’d lost his mind long ago and nothing I could say would convince him.

  “Innocent people will die.” I enunciated the words as clearly as I could, trying to get him to see reason.

  Crane ignored me. “Sit down, Cael. The festivities are just beginning.”

  He gestured at the far wall and a flickering image appeared, a window into the world beyond. A great pavilion of red and gold dominated the landscape and people milled about at every turn.

  “If you don’t care about the people of this world, or of ours, what do you care about?” There had to be some kind of motivation here. Something I wasn’t seeing. But hell if I knew what it was.

  “Oh, that’s easy. I care about creation, is all. When I was a boy, I used to play pretend with the other kids in my neighborhood. We came up with fantastical worlds, adventures, people. But at the end of the day, that’s all they were. Pretend. Imagine my surprise when I found out I could manifest reality!”

  “Magic is great,” I agreed. “This world is great. It is! I’ve seen and learned so many things, but at the heart of it all, are the people. They might just be NPCs to you, but they’re real, breathing, thinking beings!” An image of Tris’s laugh flashed through my mind. The feel of her hair. The touch of her hand on mine. “You can’t just throw them away like your playthings!”

  “Says who?” Crane rounded on me, leaning forward till I could see right into his deep, shadowy eyes. “If you want me to stop, Cael, you’re gonna have to try harder than that. Words might be your talent back on Earth, but the Veil responds to only one thing. Power. So try me.”

  I roared threw myself over the table at him, our bodies crashing to the floor together. He shoved me off and pinned me, an elbow crushing against my throat as he drew a weapon at his side.

  “That’s all you got, Cael? Might as well call you Fail!”

  I took the momentary distraction of his taunt to my advantage and focused on the light fixture above us. I wasn’t supposed to use any more Runes. I knew that. But there were extenuating circumstances.

  With a slicing motion, I cut through the air and dust rained from the ceiling as the lamp came free. It crashed into Crane’s head and he yelped in pain. A bloody gash bloomed across his scalp.

  I rolled out from under him and stumbled to my feet, pointing my blade at him.

  “You gonna kill me, Cael?” He taunted. “Go ahead. The Veil is nothing without me.”

  I narrowed my eyes, advancing on him. He was just trying to get inside my head.

  “Come on, do it!” He yelled. “Ruin me, see what happens! If you’re so worried about your precious little NPCs, avenge them!”

  I paused. Why was he egging me on?

  The pause was a moment too long, and Crane leapt to his feet. His disfigured face was even more hideous with blood running down it.

  Crane made a punching gesture and a wall of force hit me square in the stomach, knocking the air out of my lungs. I wheezed as I flew off the ground and into the earthen barrier. My HP gaug
e flashed red and my knife flew out of my hands, clattering to the floor and out of reach.

  I dug through my bags and pockets frantically as Crane advanced.

  > Runeseeker Stone.

  I gripped the cool weight of the black stone in my hands, taking a deep breath and letting the full weight of my mana flow into it. The stone heated up like a furnace, first warm and then blazing hot. Skin blistered and peeled as the searing heat washed over me.

  Crane lashed out and a torrent of orange spilled toward me. I saw the runes flying, lashing themselves around me as they had before. I remembered the feeling all too well. The runes flowed like slimy vines, snaking their way up my legs, my arms, my neck. Any minute now, they would engulf me completely.

  This time, I wasn’t going down without a fight. I held the stone in front of me, invoking its special ability.

  Hopefully it would be good enough.

  The stone shook in my hands as it absorbed the runic energy, getting hotter and hotter. Crane froze with a forlorn expression, his mouth sagging open as orange light spilled from his body. It was almost like I was sucking the life right out of him.

  Crane tried to unleash another onslaught. Nothing happened.

  He tried again, shaking with rage.

  Nothing.

  Crane roared and charged at me. I dodged to the side and he pummeled into the wall with a bone-crunching thud.

  I lost my grip on the stone and it tumbled out of my hands, clattering across the floor.

  > Caution: The Runeseeker Stone has reached Overflow. Detonation in 10...9...

  Oh, shit. I scrambled out of the way as fast as I could, lodging myself underneath Crane’s large wooden desk.

  Crane saw his opportunity. He lunged forward and grabbed the stone.

  “What’s going on?” He cried. “What did you do to me?”

  I counted the seconds under my breath.